This invention relates to live training ammunition which has a limited range while still providing realistic training.
A standard caliber 0.50, M33 bullet fired from an M2 machine gun has a maximum range of over 5 kilometers. Consequently, training ranges for such ammunition using much shorter target ranges, for example, 1000 meters, require considerable area and are few in number.
It would be very desirable to provide a structure for such ammunition which provides realistic training at the designated target distance but wherein the bullets have a limited range so that smaller areas can be used for training.
Plastic ball ammunition and steel probe nose rounds have been proposed for this purpose. The maximum range of a plastic ball has been found to be about 2900 meters while the maximum range of a steel probe nose is about 3900 meters A maximum range of 2500 meters is preferable. A further drawback of the 0.50 caliber plastic ball rounds is that their mass is insufficient to generate enough recoil to recycle the M2 machine gun. Finally, neither of the rounds had an appearance similar to the standard caliber 0.50, M33 ball and, therefore, detracted from training realism.